Gardening the Hudson Valley

Should you start with a design or does design evolve over time?

It's more than beauty. Flowers serve a vital role in the vegetable garden, stopping the spread of disease, controlling which insects get to stick around and making our lives easier. Here's some more info and tips for getting started.

Even though we can't start planting outdoors just yet - soon, but not yet - we can get a taste of spring by visiting one of the local garden and flower shows. I talk about 3 within driving distance that will satisfy your longing to breath in air saturated with the scent of warm soil.

What does it take to enjoy gardening? Is it a personality thing? Maybe a disorder? My friend thought it looked enticing, until she gave it a half-hearted try. Here's my advice to her and anyone who is discouraged about gardening.

We're all familiar with El Nino. He comes around every few years and totally confuses us about winter. I'm not complaining that it's too warm for me, but it's not the best winter weather for the garden. Here are a few things to keep an eye on, until things go back to normal.

Would someone visiting your garden get a glimpse of who you are? If your garden doesn't reflect you every bit as well as your home does, here are some ideas to help you shape your garden's story.

You might not consider fall to be the ideal season for evaluating your garden's design, but you can learn a lot by studying your garden when all the leaves have fallen.

It may be November, but it's still nice enough outdoors for the plants to be growing - which means there's work to be done. A little care now can mean the difference between winter dieback and winter dormancy.

Piling your leaves at the edge of the road for pick up is a waste of garden gold. Here are 6 things you can do with your leaves that won't take much time or effort on your part and will make your garden richer.

It happens every year, so it's easy to take it for granted or even miss the show. Those dazzling fall colors the leaves turn don't change by accident. Here's what causes all those colors and how to predict if it will be a great year for fall foliage.